League Tables & Rankings

League Tables and Rankings

Our Position on Rankings

It is estimated that there are about 17,000 universities in the world. They are of a wide variety, operate in different contexts, and may pursue different aims and objectives. Therefore, it does not always make sense to rank one of them as better or worse than the other. None the less, there are attempts to compile rankings and league tables of 'the best' universities in the world, or in any given country.

If you're interested in university rankings, we recommend that you look at as many of them as you can and that you treat them all with caution.

What the league tables measure

Different league tables measure different things. You should check whether the table you're looking at actually measures the things you're interested in. They also assign different weights to the things they do measure. You should know which of the topics they cover they consider to be more important. The weightings may vary from one year to the next (often without any notice or explanation). This would affect the rankings even if nothing else had changed.

Small changes in data can make a big difference in rankings from one year to the next. Therefore, you should ideally look at a university’s rankings over time, not just for the current year.

We also recommend that you look at single-topic rankings such as the National Student Survey or the Employability Rankings. They only measure one thing, rather than bundle together different things. This generally makes them more reliable.

Most of the common rankings and league tables are compounded out of a number of single-topic rankings. Their outcomes depend on the way in which the compounding is done.

Many university league tables are compiled and published by newspapers. When you look at them, you should remember that the first priority of a newspaper is to sell a story to the public.

Student experience

Joint 1st for student support in the UK in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2016 and joint 7th overall

Joint 15th for overall student satisfaction among comparators in the National Student Survey 2016

10th in the British University and Colleges Sports league 2015/16

18th in the world and 5th in the UK (among participating institutions) for overall student satisfaction in the International Student Barometer 2016

Research excellence

In the Research Excellence Framework 2014 Newcastle was ranked 16th in the UK for research power and 26th for quality research.

The quality of Newcastle University research is recognised by the award of two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education. The 2005 award was for a project to address the damage to the environment caused by polluted water from abandoned mine workings. The 2009 award recognised our research in the field of ageing and health.

Times Higher Education Awards

In 2015 Newcastle won the award for 'outstanding support for students'.